New Zealand captain Kane Williamson is getting a lot of praise and applause from fans on social media after an image of his thumb being heavily bandaged went viral during the Pakistan vs New Zealand match on Saturday in Bangalore.
New Zealand and Pakistan met at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium for a very crucial encounter for both the teams’ semi-final chances. For this big game, the Kiwis were boosted by the return of their regular skipper Kane Williamson, who had missed New Zealand’s last four matches due to a thumb injury that he’d sustained during their game against Bangladesh.
Even now, the thumb is not completely healed and it was heavily bandaged. Despite this, Kane Williamson played a terrific innings of 95 runs in 79 balls, cracking 10 fours and 2 sixes. Then in the field, he took a sensational tumbling, running behind catch of Pakistan opener Abdullah Shafique.
Despite knowing that his thumb could get even worse, Kane Williamson put his injury on the line to take a diving catch of Abdullah Shafique, running backward from mid-off and giving New Zealand their first wicket.
After that, Williamson walked off the field for a while to get some treatment and get the bandage proper once again. A picture of his thumb being wrapped in bandages when he was sitting in the dugout went viral on social media.
Fans applauded Williamson for his commitment to not only play the game with a broken thumb, but also to take a terrific catch.
Here are fans’ reactions on Kane Williamson playing with an injury:
Babar Azam won the toss in Bangalore and elected to bowl first. He might be rueing his decision as the Kiwis piled up 401 runs courtesy of a century from Rachin Ravindra and 95 from Williamson.
Teams:
New Zealand (Playing XI): Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson(c), Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham(w), Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Trent Boult
Pakistan (Playing XI): Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Iftikhar Ahmed, Saud Shakeel, Agha Salman, Shaheen Afridi, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Haris Rauf
